A Matter of Destiny
by knoteach
Summary: Seven men of very different backgrounds, trying to form a cohesive group.
1. Arriving Ezra's POV

Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

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A Matter of Destiny

knoteach

Part 1: Arriving

Newly transferred ATF Agent Ezra Standish looked exhausted as he flagged down a cab to take him downtown.

The last six months had been hell for the young undercover agent. First Chrittendon was released on a technicality. He had done nothing wrong, but because he had been the man under, he was blamed. Like it was his fault the judge's secretary couldn't type the damn search warrant correctly! A few weeks later the rumors started…Five months after that with several more injures on his record, and one of those by friendly fire, Ezra was almost ready to throw in the towel. If Maude hadn't called, he might just have done it, but he wasn't about to give her the satisfaction.

Then a second chance by the name of Chris Larabee showed up in Atlanta.

Ezra sighed as he watched the scenery rush by the car window. If only things could be different here. If only the past would stay in Georgia. He doubted it. Personally he gave eight months before the redoubtable Mr. Larabee got sick of the whispers and started trying to get rid of him. Ten at most. It would start with the shifting of schedules, so that he would not be in the building when the rest of the team was. Ezra shifted, stretching sore muscles and working stiff joints. He had lost track of how many times he had been pushed against a wall by suspicious co-workers, how many bruises he had received in out of the way places. Never where anyone would have to take note of the altercation, but by enough different people that he knew it was probably common knowledge it was happening.

Ezra was still pondering his situation when the cab pulled up outside his apartment building. He had been assured by the building manager that his furniture had arrived and been set up two days ago. Walking in with the luggage he had flown with, he nodded. He'd shift things around, but it looked like everything was here.

Walking into his bedroom, Ezra set down his bags. For once Ezra was too tired to care about how it would look to be taking a nap in the middle of the day, he just found a box marked 'linens,' opened it, and pulled out a blanket.

Without bothering to actually make the bed, Ezra laid down and covered himself with the blanket. Ezra had been given one week to get to Denver, and the FBI had waited until last night to decide they needed more input from him on the last six cases he had worked. It had taken eight hours to satisfy them that he had not withheld any information from them on the cases. That had left him with two hours to get home, pack, and get to the airport in time for his early flight.

Even as Ezra relaxed into slumber, he hoped Larabee wouldn't try these kinds of tricks on him. In that instant before sleep, Ezra's heart wished that he could have found home. For a place to belong.


	2. Gathering Chris's POV

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Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

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I just wanted to say thanks to every one that left feedback for the first part of this story. THANKS:) 

Knoteach

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Part 2: Gathering

Chris rose and moved to look out the window in his office as soon as he set the handset of the phone down.

It had been seven months since he had first met Judge Orrin Travis in this very building two floors up. At the time, he had had no idea what the man had wanted from him. Travis' offer for him to head one of the ten new Special Operations ATF teams based out of the new Denver office had been a total surprise.

Chris's first reaction had been an emphatic, "Hell, NO!" Fortunately for him, Chris had clamped down hard on that initial reaction and somewhat more politely, but no less firmly, expressed his disinclination to take the offer and left, thinking that that would be the end of it.

Not so.

For the next two weeks, Travis had kept after him. Chris had finally agreed to think about it, just to get the man to leave him alone. And, being a man of his word, he had thought about. And the more he thought about the more he liked the idea, provided he could pick his own men.

After more than a month since the original meeting, Chris had gone to Travis and laid out his conditions. To his surprise, Travis had readily agreed. Travis had then casually inquired if he should be on the look out for an application from his old friend Buck Wilmington.

Chris grinned faintly as he looked out over his city. He really shouldn't have been surprised that Travis knew of his friendship with the lieutenant of the Denver bomb squad. They had known each other since theirhigh schooldays, and their friendship was well known in law enforcement circles. Yes, Buck had been his first thought of and recruited team member.

Next to sign on had been Nathan Jackson, another member of the local PD and a certified EMT. Buck had worked with him many times and liked the man and his work enough to bring him to Chris' attention. Though it was debatable whether he had actually done him a favor or not, Nathan had taken the job with no hesitation.

The fourth member of ATF Team 7 was Josiah Sanchez, former FBI profiler and long time friend of Nathan Jackson. At their first meeting, Chris had been impressed when Josiah pegged him in less than ten minutes; the man was obviously very good at his job. It had taken less than an hour to convince Sanchez to come out of retirement and join the team; confidentially Josiah had told Chris that he had been going crazy from boredom since his retirement. He just wasn't meant for a quiet life.

* * *

Chris turned away from the window and grabbed his coat as he left the office and head for the basement garage. 

Against his will, Chris's thoughts returned to the mixed bag of misfits he had brought together.

After Josiah had joined them, it had taken him only another month to find a sharpshooter…or should he say for their sharpshooter to find them!

While they weren't running their own investigations yet, Team 7 had been called in to provide back up for other teams in the field.

Vin Tanner, bounty hunter, had saved Chris and Nathan's lives when a bust had gone bad. He had been content to sit back andlet the ATF have the guy he had been chasing until he had seen two men come up behind Chris and Nathan and take a bead on them. Vin had given away his hidden position in the rafters of the warehouse to take out the men that Larabee and Jackson hadn't heard or seen.

A little investigating had brought to light Tanner's experience in the military and subsequent work as a bounty hunter. It had taken some convincing, but Chris had managed to get Travis to take a chance on the man and waive the education requirements. When Chris had made the offer to Tanner, Vin had been totally incredulous at first. When he had finally convinced Chris wasn't joking with him, he couldn't sign up fast enough.

In themonths since then, Chris had been proven right in spades! Vin's phenomenal aim had saved the lives of four more agents in the time he had been with them. He also seemed to have a knack for teaching, too; and since Tanner had started spendingtime instructing them, all of the Denver ATF's range scores were up.

After that, Chris had sat down and started looking around for a surveillance and electronics expert and an undervcover man. His attentionhad been drawn to an application from a young man currently working for the Boston PD. JD Dunne was young, no doubt about it, but he had the experience and determination to make a good agent. When the young man in question had arrived, Chris had almost rejected him out of hand since he looked like he should still be in high school, until Buck pointed out that that might come in handy when dealing with underage drinking and smoking. After Chris had welcomed him to the team, he had noticed that Buck had taken an almost brotherly interest in the kid.

That just left the Undercover man. Chris had read applications and files for undercover operatives until he was cross-eyed. Finally last month, Travis had issued an ultimatum. Chris had one more month to find the man he wanted, or Travis would assign him an undercover until he did.

Two weeks after Travis's little announcement, another folder had been left on his desk during the lunch hour. Chris didn't know who left it, though he suspected it was probably left by one of the team, but the man described in it had caught his attention enough to investigate the man.

* * *

As he climbed into his truck and headed for home, Chris thought about his last man. Ezra Standish, FBI undercover specialist out of Atlanta, was a man with a past foggier that London. Accept for his school and FBI employment records, the fold had been practically empty. When Chris went hunting, he found that he found very little that wasn't in the file and some things that were in the file couldn't be found elsewhere. 

According to what Chris read, Standish had been a maverick his entire career. His first case out of Quantico had gone bad soon after he went under, and his superiors had been sure he had been killed and dumped somewhere. A month later, Standish had tied the whole group up in a red ribbon and handed them to the ADA that ran the Atlanta office. After that, Standish had developed a reputation as a man that could beat any odds to get his man.

Until about six months ago, when a case he had worked was thrown out of court on a technicality and rumors of corruption and bribery started. No proof had been found, but the rumors persisted. Since then, Standish's already high injury rate had increased sharply, even including one confirmed case of friendly fire. To Chris, it looked a whole lot like someone had screwed up and was trying to make Standish take the fall. Except that Standish didn't seem to understand the concept of giving up.

After giving it some thought, he had gone to Atlanta to meet the man, and hopefully get a better read on him.

He had liked what he had seen. Standish had been polite and professional, maintaining a certain aloofness, even in the face of obvious slights and slurs. When he had extended the offer to transfer to his ATF team, Standish had remained silent and stared at Chris for a full minute. Chris didn't know what the criteria had been for the test Ezra had subjected him to in that minute, but what ever it had been he had passed and Standish had agreed.

That had been a week ago. Tomorrow, Standish would be coming into the office for his first day of work. The call he had received from Standish just before he left the office had been short and clipped. Chris could understand Standish's reservations. He had been sold down the river by men he had worked with for years, why should he trust men that he hadn't even met?

Chris knew they were going to have their work cut out for them, but he had a gut feeling that gaining Ezra trust would be well worth the effort they put into it.


	3. Considering Buck's POV

Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

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Part 3: Considering

Buck stood looking out through the sliding glass doors at the sparkling stars, slowly sipping at the mug of hot chocolate he cradled in his hands.

Tomorrow their last man would arrive in the office. And hopefully in a few weeks, they would be up to speed and out on their own cases, instead of helping out on other team's cases. The relative inactivity was beginning to wear on Buck. He liked routine, and things wouldn't settle until they had found their undercover man. In the last six months since Chris had called him, Buck had barely gotten settled and things would get shaken up again.

The biggest disruption had to have been that first phone call from Chris making the offer for Buck to be on the team. It had taken him less than two seconds to reply with a resounding yes.

Chris and Buck had been close since high school. Buck had been the new kid in town their sophomore year, and Chris had taken him under his wing and shown him around. Pretty soon they were just about inseparable. After graduation, they had remained close, serving in the Navy together and later on the same police force.

When Chris had called, Buck hadn't actually seen Chris in months. There had been a few phone calls back and forth, but nothing more. Chris had been drifting away from Buck ever since Sarah and Adam's deaths, and there seemed to be nothing Buck could do to stop it. They had been partners on the Denver Police Department at the time of their deaths, and Chris had resigned almost immediately, unable to deal with his grief. For the next few months Buck had watched helplessly as Chris drank and seemed driven to find his own grave as quickly as possible.

Chris had finally woken up when he nearly lost control of his car on an icy road and hit another car head on. Chris had been completely sober at the time, and realized that if he continued the way he was going, he might end up killing someone else. He refused to be the cause of another man losing his family.

Buck rejoiced silently as Chris pulled himself out of the bottle, but later mourned as he saw his good friend turning into a lonely, bitter man who worked his land, but rarely ventured out any more. Chris had rebuilt the house and started working the ranch, staying almost entirely to himself. His temper was kept under tight rein, but it was always brewing just under the surface.

* * *

Buck took another sip as he considered the last few months. The first few weeks, Chris had been as he remembered him from the last few times he saw him. Hard, almost dictatorial, but with a quick mind, figuring out what would be best at lightning speed. Over the last couple of months Chris seemed to have mellowed out just a touch, but enough that Buck thought that he could keep this going well.

When Buck had suggested Nathan Jackson as team medic, Chris had simply asked why?

The answer was easy enough.

Nathan Jackson was the best field medic Buck had ever met….He was also a moralistic, irreverent, insubordinate loud mouth!

Chris had laughed at Buck's description and told him to set up a meeting and get him his file. Buck had handed him the folder and informed him that the meeting was scheduled for the next morning. Chris just grunted as he started reading the personnel folder.

The next morning, Buck was wishing that the floor would open up and swallow him. Jackson was late, and Chris was livid. Buck had warned him not to be late, but apparently something had come up.

When Nathan arrived, Buck had immediately noticed the small blood stains on his clothes, but Chris didn't wait for explanations before blasting the man for not being there on time. Jackson hadn't backed down, however, and simply replied that there had been a severe car wreck in front of him on the freeway, and he had stopped to help. Rather caustically, he had announced that he believed someone's life was more important than being on time to a meeting.

Chris hired him on the spot.

Next to be added to the roster was a profiler, and when Nathan suggested Josiah Sanchez, retired FBI, it sounded like a perfect fit. Sanchez had been one of the FBI's most successful profilers, but because of his radical way of looking at things, he had never quite fit in there and had taken early retirement. According to Nathan, the man was beginning to go a little crazy with boredom, since the only things he had to do were help out at the local shelters and odd job repairs on the fixer-upper house he had bought.

Whatever the case, when Josiah had shown up, he had pegged Buck in less than ten minutes. Buck still didn't know him all that well, but he seemed like a solid man and he really knew his stuff, even if he was a bit of a mystery and rather cryptic in his speech at times.

The next addition to their team had come as a great surprise. Vin Tanner, ex-Ranger and bounty hunter, had saved Chris and Nathan's butts when they had been working as back-up on one of Team Four's ops. Coker, team leader to Team Four, had seriously miscalculated the amount of muscle that their target was going to bring to the meeting. The only reason they had even known Vin was there was when he started picking off the ones that had managed to circle around behind Chris and Nathan. He had managed to take six out of the fight, only killing one. That guy had refused to stay down after Vin shot him the first time, and he had been forced to kill him to order to stop him.

It had been almost humorous to watch Coker standing in the middle of the warehouse yelling up at the rafters for whoever was up there to come down, and watch the lithe young man seemingly materialize out of thin air ten feet behind him. Except for the rifle in his hands, he had looked like an average guy off the street, dressed in comfortable jeans, a t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. After a bunch of hoopla-ha about seeing if his permits to carry the rifle were legit, the four members of team seven arranged to take him out for a drink later.

Buck had wondered for the next five days if Chris had absolutely lost his mind as he fought tooth and nail with Judge Travis to get permission to bring Vin on the team. But it would seem that Chris had seen something the rest of them didn't, because Vin had proven invaluable since he had come on board. He had the highest range scores in the entire ATF, and those skills had already saved several lives, including Buck's. Vin had even been able to raise the scores of others in the office by giving them pointers.

* * *

Buck shook his head fondly as he considered the next man to join their team, the one currently ensconced on his living room couch playing a video game.

Why Chris had picked JD Dunne from the prodigious number of applicants, Buck didn't know, but he sure had found a gem. He looked young enough to blend in with teen culture, if needed, but he was a trained cop with a degree in computer forensics.

When JD first arrived in the office, Buck had thought he was seeing things, but the kid had stood up to Chris when he had started to reject him out of hand. With Buck prodding from one end and the kid standing his ground from the other, Chris had eventually given in and agreed to a probation period. After just two weeks, Chris declared that if JD still wanted the job, it was all his.

When JD had been informed later that first morning that the apartment he had been going to rent had been vandalized the night before and was no longer inhabitable, Buck had volunteered his spare room. JD was still there now, weeks later. They both felt comfortable the way things were and saw no reason the situation had to change yet.

Their last man however, Buck wasn't so sure of. Where Chris had dug this guy up, Buck had no earthly clue. Chris had just announced one morning that he would be heading for Atlanta to interview a possible undercover man. Buck had asked about it, but all Chris had done was hand them each copies of the man's folder.

Ezra Standish, according to his file, which was very slim, looked like a good agent that had gotten bent. Nathan had been quite zealous in declaring that he thought Standish would be bad news. Chris had just replied that he thought Nathan was wrong, and they had better give Standish a chance before they wrote him off.

Later, in private, Buck had voiced his own concerns, but Chris had just looked at him with a thinly veiled look of disappointment on his face and said that they would have to wait and see.

Buck drank the last of his hot chocolate and set the mug on the counter to be washed later. As he headed up to bed, he yelled at the younger man that it was time for bed, since they had to be in the office early in the morning. JD replied in the affirmative and Buck waited for a couple of minutes as the TV was shut off and the kid headed for the spare room.

As he slipped into bed, Buck pulled his mind from the coming day, reminding himself that speculation never did any good, but it never hurt to keep one's eyes open.


	4. Awakening Ezra's POV

Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

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Part 4: Awakening 

Several hours later, Ezra stirred from his exhausted sleep. When he first awoke, Ezra was disoriented for a few minutes, and he remained completely still until he remembered where he was and what he was doing there.

Looking at his watch, Ezra found that it was late afternoon already. He pushed the blanket aside and stood to stretch the kink out of his joints after being still for so long. For once, he didn't care if his clothes were a rumpled mess, first from the flight and then from being slept in. Ezra was wondering what he should do first when his stomach decided to remind him that the only thing he had eaten in the last fifteen hours was that pitiful excuse for breakfast the airline had served.

As Ezra padded out to the kitchen in his stocking feet, the haggard man reflected on how he had come to be here, in Denver about to start a new job.

Mr. Larabee had not told him how he had come up with his name, and it concerned Ezra that he had as much information as he did. He'd worked hard to purge the records to make sure no one could find anything they could use against him, either his so called "colleagues" or his targets. Some of the things Larabee had mentioned were known only to himself and four other people in the world. Which of them Larabee had had contact with, Ezra had not been able to ascertain in the time he had.

Ezra gave himself a mental shake as he pulled out the makings for a sandwich. It had annoyed him that Larabee had neglected to provide him with any information on the other members of ATF Team Seven, not even their names; indeed it still troubled him that he was walking into this half blind, so to speak.

Ezra had been able to do some research on the team, but thanks to the FBI's shenanigans the last two weeks, he had only gotten names for four of the six team members. And the information he had gathered on those men didn't bode well for the future.

Ezra sat down and started eating his dinner as he considered the information he had gathered.

Chris Larabee was a former Navy SEAL with multiple commendations, and several reprimands for insubordination. Eventually, he had left the Navy, gotten married, and joined the Denver Police Department. Up until that point the man's life look idealistic, thenthree years ago, his wife and young son were killed in a fire. A car bomb had been set in the pick-up he usually drove. Only his wife's car had been in the shop and he had left his truck for her to use and caught a ride to work with his good friend Buck Wilmington. He arrived back home that afternoon to a horrific sight of fire trucks and ambulances.

According to Ezra's information, Larabee had quit the police immediately and nearly killed himself with alcohol. He wasn't sure what had woken the man up, but six months after his family's death, Larabee cut his drinking back and went back to his ranch.

And that was where he stayed up until six months ago, when Judge Orrin Travis, the Assistant Director of the Denver branch of the ATF, offered him the position of team leader on one of his new tactical units. It apparently had taken some convincing, but Travis had talked him into it and for the last six months he had been gathering his men.

Ezra had information on only three of those five, and they were the best available in their fields…mavericks every one of them!


	5. Watching Nathan's POV

Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

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Part 5: Watching 

Nathan had gone to bed early in order to be up and in the office early, but sleep was proving to be illusive. The last new member of the team would be in the office tomorrow, and Nathan had reservations about the man.

Nathan liked working with this team; each of the men in it brought unique qualities and abilities that made a cohesive group. Even better, they treated each other as equals, a rare thing in the black man's experience.

When Buck Wilmington had called him to ask if he would be interested in joining the new ATF team, Nathan hadn't really expected much to come out of it. Chris Larabee had a reputation of being a hard man to work with, never mind for, and Nathan was sure that his own well deserved reputation as being stubborn and argumentative would put him off.

When the accident occurred in front of him that first morning, Nathan hadn't stopped to think about it when he grabbed his first aid kit and jumped out of the car to help. Before he knew it, three hours had passed and he was very late for the meeting.

He had arrived at the federal building down town fully believing that there was no way he was going to get a job working there. When Chris had berated him for being late without even asking what had happened, Nathan had lost his temper and snarled at him that a human life was more important than any meeting.

Apparently he had said something right, because Chris had stopped and looked at him closely, taking in the small splotches of blood that dotted his sleeves and pants. The next words out of the man's mouth were, "You're hired."

Nathan remembered blinking in surprise and asking him if he was joking.

"I'd never joke about something like this, Jackson," he had said gruffly. "You stand up for what you believe in and you're good at your job. You and I won't always agree, but I promise to always listen to what you have to say. Welcome aboard." Chris had extended his hand to seal it, and Nathan had taken the gamble without a second thought.

* * *

Nathan unconsciously shook his head in wonder as he remembered how things had come together after that. 

Larabee had mentioned what positions they still had to fill and Nathan had immediately recommended his long time friend Josiah Sanchez to be their profiler. Chris had heard him out as he spoke about his friend and said he would check him out.

Josiah and Nathan had been friends for years, ever since Nathan had been a rookie on the Denver Police Department. The FBI had sent Josiah to help a taskforce they had put together to catch a murder. Everyone at the DPD had discounted the profile Josiah had worked up because of his maverick reputation and ostensibly off the wall conclusions. It seemed like only Nathan understood what Josiah had seen and believed him. Together they planned accordingly, and that belief and planning saved their lives and the lives of several other members of the taskforce. They had kept in touch after that, growing to be very close friends over the years.

Nathan had been bothered when Josiah told him he was going to retire, but he could understand a little of the frustration Josiah was feeling. For twenty-five years Josiah had dealt with the pressure to conform to the Bureau's expectations, even when he had proven their methods didn't work. Nathan figured he would have had enough, too.

Not that long ago, Nathan hadn't known Vin Tanner from Adam, still didn't know him that well, but in certain ways Vin and Chris reminded him of one another. Both were quietly dangerous men with good hearts. Chris might keep it more hidden than Vin, but it was still there. Nathan had seen the dangerous side of both of them in action, but the first time Vin had shown it, and saved his life in the process, had been before they actually met.

Nathan hadn't even known there was anyone behind him until he heard a high pitched rapport that he knew wasn't from an ATF weapon then a startled cry from behind him. He had turned just in time to see a second man behind him and Chris get picked off after a second high pitch shot. After the smoke cleared and all the perps had been carted off, he had started looking around for the man that had saved their lives. When Coker started needlessly yelling for the sniper to come down out of the rafters, he had stopped and joined the men watching the slender young man walk up behind him silently and tap him on the shoulder. It had been funny to watch the team leader jump away and nearly land on his ass on the ground.

The next few days, when Chris was arguing with Travis about getting Vin on the team, he had wondered if Chris wasn't taking his gratitude a little far. Well, if gratitude had been the only thing motivating Chris, which he highly doubted for he had found that the man had an uncanny ability to read people when he wanted to, he was certainly glad it had. Since he had joined the team, Vin had saved several lives with his phenomenal aim.

* * *

The next addition to their crew had surprised Nathan as much as Tanner had, but in a different way entirely. 

Nathan had known Chris had chosen an electronics expert he thought would fit with the rest of them, but the man that arrived for the interview looked like he was in danger of being arrested for truancy! JD Dunne didn't look like he was a day over sixteen, and Chris and he had both thought there was no way he could do the job. With both JD and Buck arguing for giving him a chance, Buck had suggested a probationary period, to see if either party involved had problems. When Chris agreed to the idea, Nathan was surprised. Chris had a reputation for never taking advice from anyone.

Within two weeks, JD had fixed half the computers in the building, the ones that Tech support never seemed to be able to get to stop crashing every hour, and reconfigured the firewalls to be more efficient. He agreed whole-heartedly when Chris had said that the job was all JD's if he still wanted it and silently cheered when JD agreed. JD was energetic and boisterous to an extreme, which lended even more to his air of wholesome youth, but he knew his field inside and out.

Which brought Nathan's thoughts back to the man he would meet the next morning.

The files Chris had given each of them on Ezra Standish had been pitifully thin, but they showed rather obviously that the man had turned. Nathan could hardly believe that Chris had missed it, or worse, had ignored it and was still going to bring the man on the team! Standish had been good, Nathan would admit that, but it was obvious he had thrown the Anderson case and since then there had been suspicions of bribes several times. According to the records, Standish had been a maverick since he joined the Bureau, and apparently he had decided that going crooked would be easier than staying on the straight and narrow.

Nathan had done a little research of his own after Chris's announcement, and he had found that the records concerning Standish were just as scarce as the information in that file had indicated. Someone had worked very hard to see to it that no one could trace the man. To Nathan that just confirmed his suspicions. Nathan wasn't in sure where Chris had gotten all of the information he had, but he was convinced that nothing good could come of the man joining the team.

Nathan rolled over again and tried to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in. Chris had warned them to give Standish a chance, so he would….but only one and he would be sure to keep a close eye on the man.


	6. Waiting Josiah's POV

Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

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Part 6: Waiting

Josiah was relaxing in his favorite recliner after a day of repairs and yard work when contemplation of what he had accomplished brought with it thoughts of what the next day might bring and the events of the last few months that had led up to it. The last few months had definitely been unique in the experience of Josiah Sanchez.

The call that had started it all had come on a lazy afternoon when Josiah had been about to go crazy from boredom. He had plenty of repairs to do and renovations to make, but he could only work as quickly as his pension could pay for materials. A the time, he had been contemplating a trip to the hardware store, even if it meant living off of canned pasta for the rest of the month.

Josiah had known Nathan for several years and trusted his judgment when he said he thought that this might be a job that he would enjoy. If he though Chris Larabee would give him a chance, then he would be willing to give Chris Larabee a chance.

Chris had overcome a lot after the deaths of his wife and son. Josiah could almost understand the man's subsequent descent into alcohol and knew that the trip back up out of the bottle was even harder. He had watched his own father lose that battle as a child and had had to live through the abuse that always accompanied the man's binges.

Buck Wilmington, the team's demolition man, had stayed with his good friend all through the catastrophe and his recovery afterward. The two men had been friends for many years, thought that had been strained for a while, but Josiah hoped that they could smooth it out now. Even so Buck seemed to have enough problems of his own.

Buck was a well known ladies' man, and seemed to love being the center of attention, but Josiah had noticed that the former SEAL and Lieutenant of the Denver Bomb Squad seemed more comfortable when he had the stability of a strong leader and set routine, rather than when he was the leader and setting the routine and making all of the decisions. Quite frankly, he was more at home with taking orders than with giving them.

* * *

Nathan, unlike the others, Josiah knew well. He was an overly pious loudmouth, but he was trustworthy and loyal to a fault. He too had his personal problems some obvious, some not so obvious. Few knew that his mother had committed suicide after being raped, but most could guess that it wasn't easy being one of only fifteen black men on the Denver Police Department roster.

But Nathan was nothing if not determined. He had worked hard all through high school to keep his grades at the absolute top, earning academic scholarships for college. After that, when his dreams of medical school fell through he had scraped up all the money he had saved toward it and enrolled in a professional EMT course, then gone on to enter the world of law enforcement. He had chosen a difficult life, but he had excelled admirably.

Vin Tanner, the first man to join the team after he had, was an interesting young man, but definitely a keeper. Orphaned at an early age in Texas, young Vin had been sent to Denver to live with his maternal Grandfather. When the grandfather died two years later, he had been bounced from foster home to foster home, until he was thirteen. At that point he had had enough of families services and had run away to live on the streets. He had barely managed to graduate high school and then immediately enlisted in the army. After boot camp the Army had invited him to join the Rangers as a sniper, a position he held with distinction, having some of the highest range scores in Rangers history.

Vin eventually left the Rangers and the Army when corruption in the higher level lead to the deaths of several of his friends. Vin then dropped out of sight for a couple years, only to reappear leading two highly wanted criminals into a state police station in California.

From then on, Vin Tanner had worked as one of the most successful, and surprisingly respected, bounty hunters west of the Mississippi. Vin had even brought in three men off the FBI's most wanted list in the last five years, a feat that was unheard of! Law men all over the nation respected Vin, not only for his ability to track his prey, but also the way he never stepped over the line and used more force than was necessary. It was a rare thing for a bounty hunter to even care, since most were in it for the money, but Vin was truly in the line of work to get criminals off the street.

JD Dunne was another interesting one. Their new computer expert might look young and certainly had quite an enthusiasm for life, but he was not as naïve as the others seemed to think. He had a good head on his shoulders and wasn't afraid to stand up for what he believed, just like the rest of them. He had shown quite a bit of initiative in applying for a position that was half a continent away. One could tell that his mother's recent death had him a little off balance, but he was dealing with it well and was determined to make her proud of him.

As a member of the Boston Police Department, JD had been making quite a name for himself as a computer tracker and technological forensics man. When the perp seemed to disappear, he could trace down the seemingly most minute evidence of where the quarry had gone and get them back on track. Looking at his record it wasn't hard to figure out what Chris had been thinking when he hired him.

* * *

Which brought Josiah up to date and to the anticipated events tomorrow.

When Chris had announced his intentions to hire Ezra Standish and gave them each copies of his folder, Josiah had been greatly surprised. At the time Josiah could vaguely remember having worked with the man once years ago, but reading the file had brought it all back.

Standish had been brash, mouthy, and irreverent, but he had been open-minded about Josiah's style of profiling, which was more than could be said for most of the FBI. He had even publicly backed Josiah, which had gotten a few more people to listen.

At the time, Josiah had had a hard time pinning the man down; there had been things about him that just didn't add up right. That had trouble Josiah, but he had believed him to be a good agent.

When Josiah had found out a few months ago that Standish had stepped off the line, he had gotten in contact with a friend in the Atlanta office and talked him into letting him look at the case file. Everything had been in order, and it was painfully clear that Standish had thrown the case, even if there wasn't enough evidence to charge him, or even fire him. Since then Standish had continued to work undercover, but his cases were kept low profile and relatively unimportant.

Josiah shook his head as he stood and headed for bed. Josiah couldn't figure out what Chris was doing, but it didn't look very good at the moment. Josiah hoped everything would be alright and he wasn't above admitting he had made a mistake. He'd just have to wait and see what came up.


	7. Musing Ezra's POV

Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

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Part 7: Musing

Ezra sat quietly eating his sandwich as he considered the next name he had.

Buck Wilmington had been a friend of Chris Larabee's since they had been in High School. Since then they had served in the Navy together and become partners on the Denver PD. Wilmington had stayed with Larabee all through the conflagration surrounding the deaths of Larabee's wife and son. After Larabee had stopped drinking and it had become obvious that he would not be coming back to the police force, Wilmington had transferred to the bomb squad where he could put more of his Naval training to use.

Professionally, Wilmington was one of the best demolition men west of the Mississippi. His reputation with explosives was stellar, but his personal reputation wasn't quite so spotless. He had an eye for the ladies and a bit of a short fuse at times when his men were threatened. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it had gotten him into trouble a few times. All in all, though, he was reputed to be a more accepting man than Larabee, so there was a slight chance he wouldn't have written Ezra off before he had even met him.

Ezra held no delusions that he had any hope of being accepted in anyway by the man that had next joined the team, Nathan Jackson.

Jackson had been born and raised in a small town in Alabama. The son of the local mechanic, everyone had told the boy exactly what he could not do, especially after his mother had committed suicide, but he had proved them all wrong when he had won scholarships to college and completed a pre-med degree with flying colors. However, his dream of becoming a doctor had stopped right there when he could not get the finances he needed to enter medical school. Instead he had completed an EMT course and entered the Police Department as an officer and a certified field medic.

Jackson was a good cop, Ezra would give him that, and an excellent medic. He had saved many lives with his knowledge of medicine when paramedics could not get to the wounded.

However, for all his good qualities, Jackson was known for being judgmental and self-righteous. And while he might frequently be right, his caustic manner of pointing out peoples faults and sins was more likely to cause more problems than correct the ones present.

Sighing, Ezra got up and walked over to the refrigerator. Pulling out the carton of milk, Ezra also retrieved a glass and poured himself some. After putting the milk away, Ezra returned to the table and his contemplations, making a mental note to himself to stay as far away from Jackson as possible, for as long as he might be here.


	8. Reclaiming Vin's POV

Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

* * *

Part 8: Reclaiming

Vin was continuing to worry about Ezra's first day in the office as he went through his workout. As distracted as he was, he didn't dare try anything that required intense concentration or he would be liable to hurt himself.

Vin had enjoyed his time with Team 7 so far. He had felt an instant kinship with Chris Larabee that he had felt few times in his life. Chris was almost like his brother, even though they had only known each other for a few weeks. The man was hard, but fair; keeping his temper in check, but protecting his men to the absolute best of his ability. He was, in Vin's mind, one of the best commanding officers he had ever known.

Buck Wilmington, Chris's old friend, however, made Vin nervous at times, but he seemed solid under all the talk and jokes. Vin had noticed that while Buck always enjoyed being the center of attention, he didn't like having to make the decisions. He did not crave authority, and was more at ease when someone else was in charge.

Nathan Jackson, Vin wasn't sure he liked at all. Most of the time he seemed fine, even friendly, but sometimes something would set him off, and he would moralize and preach at them about whatever it was, whether it was any of their business or not. That wasn't to say the man didn't do his job, he did and he did it extremely well, but Vin could just imagine what he was going to say about Ezra. He imagined that combination would be as explosive as kerosene and matches.

Josiah Sanchez had proven to be a good man over the last few weeks. A bit hard to understand at times, but over all, understanding and perceptive. Josiah had figured Vin out for the most part, though some of his errors had made Vin want to laugh. Still he had done well, so there was hope he would be able to see beyond Ezra's façade.

Sighing, Vin moved to his next exercise. He hoped that team members would all be able to see behind the mask, but he highly doubted it would happen.

* * *

As Vin continued his workout, his thoughts wandered to how he had first met ATF Team 7.

Vin had been on the trail of James Holland for the better part of two months, when a snitch informed him that the man had been spotted in that particular warehouse several times in the last few weeks. Vin's plan had been to wait in the warehouse and grab Holland, peaceably if at all possible, and hand him over to the county sheriff, but when he had seen the ATF teams starting to set up he had decided to let them have him. To Vin it seemed only right, since some of the things the man was wanted for included the murders of two Federal undercover agents.

Vin had noticed as the men positioned themselves below him in the warehouse that they had no one positioned high on his side of the building. It hadn't taken him more than a split second to decide to stay and watch the backs of the men below him. At one time he himself had aspirations of working in law enforcement, but his lack of education had always gotten him turned down when he applied. He also had a debt he could never repay, and he wasn't about to pass up the chance to work off a little of the interest he believed he owed.

When he saw the men circle around behind some of the agents below him, he didn't hesitate to take them out. Unmindful of the quagmire of trouble he might be getting into, he had taken the shots that saved Chris and Nathan's lives.

After the fighting was over, Vin had headed for the ground floor to watch them cart off Holland and his men. It had been fun to slide in and tap the guy on the shoulder when he started yelling for him to come down. After all his permits had been verified, Chris and the rest of his team had asked if they could meet him later and buy him a drink in thanks. He had agreed, thinking that that would be it. How wrong he had been!

When Chris called him up five days later at the apartment he kept in Purgatorio to offer him a job, Vin had thought it was a joke at first. When Chris Larabee had told him in no uncertain terms that this was no joke and the offer was quite sincere, Vin had jumped at the chance.

* * *

Since then, one man had already been added to the team and another was due to start work in the morning.

JD might look young, but Vin could tell he would be quite an asset to the team. He was very professional with a quick mind. He had already made himself practically indispensable to the techs that serviced the computers in the Federal Building. He might only have been with them for a couple of months, but JD was definitely here to stay.

And that brought his thoughts back Ezra.

When he had walked into that bar three years ago, he had no idea what he was walking into. When the strange, auburn-haired man had quickly walked up to him and greeted him by name, he had been stunned. He had been positive at the time that he had never met this man, but then the stranger had pulled him into a firm embrace. He had been about to protest when the stranger hissed into his ear that he was with the FBI and Vin had to play along if either of them was to get out to there alive. The rest of their stint together had been just as interesting, but thanks to Ezra's quick mind and Vin's knowledge of military weaponry, they had gotten out of it with only a few bruises.

Afterward, it had taken him over two months to track down the man that had saved his life. When he did find him, he found him in a hospital bed recovering from a bullet wound gotten on the case he had been assigned right after their little adventure. It took some work on Vin's part to get past Ezra's paranoia, but eventually they had become very good friends. Their friendship was something that Vin treasured greatly.

Ezra was a bit of a big mouth and didn't hesitate to tell you when he thought you were wrong, especially if he thought it would endanger lives, but he also listened with an open mind and gave honest answers. Well, to non-personal questions anyway. Ezra could avoid a personal question with the best of them, and Vin still didn't know that many details about the man's life before they met, but he was still working on it. Vin was quite proud of the fact that he was one of the few Ezra had allowed close enough to know as much as he did.

It had actually been Ezra that convinced him to give bounty hunting a try. Ezra had been impressed that Vin had been able to find him "so easily." It hadn't seemed easy to Vin at the time, but he agreed to give it a try when Ezra pointed out that even if he couldn't be in law enforcement, that this would be a way to help.

It only took Vin a few months after that to establish himself as a top rated hunter that never used excessive force. Vin also found that he enjoyed the work, both the hunt and getting criminals off the street.

Vin sighed as he cleaned up and started to put away his equipment. He just hoped that by some miracle Ezra could find a place here as he had.

**Hoping (coming) ****Index****Home**


	9. Hoping JD's POV

Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

* * *

I wanted to say thank you to every one that has sent reviews on this story. Thanks!

knoteach

* * *

Chapter 9: Hoping

JD sat on Buck's living room sofa playing a video game. To the casual observer, he would have seemed absorbed in the game, but if one looked a little closer, they might notice that while he was doing well, it was as if he was on autopilot.

And indeed he was.

JD's mind was far removed form the game that he was playing. He's conscious attention focused on the group of men he had come to work with and wondering about the final member of the group that would be arriving the next morning.

When JD had applied for the job with the Denver ATF, it had only been a few weeks since his mother's death. Some might have called it a rash move, but JD had given it a lot of thought, even before her death. He wanted out of the northeast, and fast.

So here he was in Denver, a member of one of the new ATF Tactical teams. And if he wasn't mistaken, a member of a strangely cohesive bunch of misfit brothers!

In JD mind, if he was the youngest, Chris was the eldest, no matter what their chronological ages. He was their leader, and JD already knew that they would follow the man through hell and back if he asked. Or even if he didn't, JD amended the thought. Chris could be intimidating, even frightening, without even trying, but JD firmly believed he could trust the man with his life as soon as he met him.

Shifting in his seat, JD glanced over his shoulder at where Buck was standing at the glass doors that led to the balcony.

Buck, fell somewhere in the middle. He had the experience and brains to lead if it was needed, but he would rather not. Buck had taken JD under his wing that first day when his arrangements for an apartment had fallen through. JD had always been out of place, too small, too young, too smart. Buck treated him like a kid part of the time, true, but he also treated him like he was normal, not something strange that should be avoided. JD had always wondered growing up what it was like to have an older brother that would play with you and take you places was like.

Now he was finding out, and he loved the feeling.

* * *

JD's thought then drifted to the dark-skinned medic that made up another of this unusual family he found himself part of. 

Nathan was a little brusque to JD's way of thinking, and he wished the man would quit complaining to them about things they had no control over. What business was it of theirs if a member of team 3 was drinking too much for his tastes? As long as the man did his job and wasn't drunk while on the job, it was none of their business. But he could understand that Nathan just had his best interests at heart. He wanted to keep them all healthy, so if he tended to reprimand them overly about their eating habits or risky actions during a bust, he could understand. Nathan was just hiding his worry behind a smokescreen of scolding and complaining. JD just tried to brush it off and not let it bother him too much.

Josiah, Chris's elder by several years, did come out as being the eldest of their little family in JD's way of thinking. Josiah might have the knowledge, but he had no desire for the responsibility that would have come with the position. Josiah was a wise man, usually willing to wait until he had all of the information before he made a decision. JD was glad the man had joined the team, even if he did get a little annoyed when he couldn't understand half of what the man said. JD was getting better at decrypting what he was saying, but it was taking a while to get used to.

The member of the team closest to his own age, but chronologically and by temperament was their sharpshooter, Vin. Vin quiet and inconspicuous most of the time, but every once in a while, JD would look and catch a look in the man's eye that promised trouble for someone, usually Buck when the mustached man was teasing the Texan about something. JD noticed that those looks usually preceded a practical joke of some random type on the person that had been on the receiving end of that look. JD hadn't caught him at it yet, but he was sure Tanner was the culprit. He was JD hoped he could get Vin to let him in on it, but right now he wasn't sure how to approach him about it.

* * *

As he was putting away his game after Buck yelled that it was time to go to bed, JD's mind turned to the man that would joining them in the morning. JD had been excited when Chris had announced a few weeks ago that he had chosen an undercover man and was heading out to talk to him. That was…until he had got a look at the mystery man's file. 

The miniscule file had contained school and employment records and very little else. It was hard to get a read on a person form those alone, but JD had done some digging on his own and what he had found unsettled him. Or rather it was what he hadn't found. As in anything that wasn't already in that file. Even hacking into the FBI data base had gained him nothing but a complete list of the cases the man had worked, but no information about the man himself.

What JD had seen though, confused him. School records conflicted with FBI review reports and other data. Standish had started coming under suspicion of graft and bribery about six months ago, but all the investigations that had been run never found so much as a shred of evidence against him. The only things that could be proven was that a case had gone down the drain, but it didn't help that Standish had shown up with a brand new car just a few weeks before the case. JD had tried to look into where the car had come from, but he had run up against a brick wall.

From what little personal information JD had to work with, he didn't thing Standish was really on the take, but unfortunately, once rumors like that started, it was more often than not a case of guilty until proven innocent. And proving the agent's innocence would be like trying to prove to the world that earth was round before Columbus sailed. It might be true, but no one was going to believe you.

Well, JD sighed as he got ready for bed, every family needed a black sheep, and he guessed theirs would be Ezra Standish. He just hoped that they could all learn to get along.


	10. Remembering Ezra's POV

Disclaimer: I make no claims to the characters in the following story. I recieve no money or other recompense from these writings. they are intended solely for the purposes of entertainment

* * *

Chapter 10: Remembering

Ezra finished his glass of milk, washed out the empty glass and retrieved his suitcases from where he had left them beside the door. His mind still whirling, Ezra lugged the bags into his bedroom and started to unpack. As he shook out and refolded the clothing, he considered the last member of the team he knew about.

Josiah Sanchez he actually knew slightly, having worked with the man one a long time ago. The man was the son of a clergy man with a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology. The FBI considered Sanchez's methods of profiling too extreme, but he was far more accurate than those that used the approved methods endorsed by the law enforcement community.

He had seemed like a good man, but Ezra knew he had requested a look at the files after everything went to hell on the Crittendon case. Since the man had never attempted to get a hold of Ezra, he figured the man had come away with a bad taste in his mouth. Sanchez might be a good profiler, but he tended to rely too much on his observations and secondary source data. While it was gratifying that he had taken the time to actually look at the file, Ezra doubted he had looked beyond the surface of what was in it.

Having completed reviewing what he knew of the team, Ezra shifted to the worrisome holes that were left. There were two members of the team he still had no name or face for, and Mr. Larabee still had information that Ezra couldn't figure out where he had gotten it.

If he had had to make a guess, Ezra would have put his money on Vin Tanner having contacted Mr' Larabee. It was both more likely, considering their location, and the best case scenario in Ezra's mind. Though in his experience, most of the time the best-case-scenario wasn't what happened.

Vin Tanner had only been out of the Army about six months when they first met. Ezra had been undercover with a biker gang when Vin had accidentally ambled into a meet. Ezra's quick thinking had saved Vin's life, and Vin had later returned the favor when the bust went down.

Ezra didn't know why they had been come friends so easily. Maybe because they had both recognized a little of themselves in the other. Whatever the reason, then had gotten to know each other fairly well over the years. Of the maybe half dozen people that had access to the information the Mr. Larabee had been privy to, he truly hoped it was Vin that he had talked too. If it was that would give this whole mess at least one redeeming feature.

It didn't bear thinking about if it had been someone else.

Finishing his unpacking, Ezra placed the requested call to his new boss and informed him that he was in town and would be present in the morning for work.

Keeping the call short, Ezra contemplated what he should do next. Not coming up with anything, he decided that getting some extra sleep was in order. Going to the box marked 'linens' that he had opened earlier, Ezra removed a set of sheets and finished making the bed. Ezra knew that while it was good to be as prepared as possible, there was no profit to be made in speculation. Changing into pajamas, Ezra climbed in bed and set the alarm clock of the next morning. He would just have to wait and see what happened.


End file.
